Motorcycle racing enthusiasts are in a "bleak" situation this year with the cancellation of over 100 events because of the non-availability of insurance, according to the sport's governing body.
Calls have been made for the Government to intervene to make it easier for danger-related activities to get insured but for now the likes of motorcycle racing is facing an uncertain future.
"It's a serious problem," the president of Motorcycling Ireland, Seán Bissett, said.
"We can't get any insurance company to take us on at all. Up to the end of last year, we had insurance for 30-odd years without a break."
However, their former insurer "wouldn't touch us" this year, he said, while other insurers would not provide cover either, with the result that six major road-racing events due to take place throughout 2023, as well as over 100 smaller fixtures such as motocross and track-based racing, have been cancelled.
"It's very bleak," Mr Bissett added.
One of those large-scale events is the Faugheen 50, a weekend-long series of qualifiers and races which has been taking place around the village of Faugheen outside Carrick-on-Suir since the 1970s, and for two decades under its current guise.
"It's sad if there's no future in it," the president of the Faugheen 50 Road Racing Club, Alan O'Dwyer, said.
He himself has been involved in motorcycle racing since he was a child.
"It started off as a hobby and became more serious as the years went by, I was involved with racing and my family and kids came along with me. Later in years I became involved in organising the racing, which was progression.
"It's more than a hobby, a really good past-time and also a really good social scene for me. Through racing I made friends all over the country, north, south, east and west.
"Really good friends, and when we're running events in Faugheen they'll come to us and we'll travel the country going to them."
His daughter, Chloe O'Dwyer, grew up immersed in the sport. "It was our holiday every year, two weeks solid of our summer holiday was purely committed to here. Our Dad raced as well, so we'd be all around the country with him. It was everything to us," she said.
Now it's a different story: "To not have that now is weird, it's surreal. Especially our generation growing up, we were waiting to take over, it's 20 years [going]. We'll get on with it, but it's weird to get on because when you have something for so long and then it's gone, it's hard."
PRO of the Faugheen road racing club, Paul Power, said that after the former insurer withdrew, attempts were made by Motorcycling Ireland to get insurance elsewhere, but to no avail.
"Obviously it has a huge knock-on effect, not just for the Faugheen 50, but it also has a knock-on effect for all motorcycle sport in Ireland because we've no insurance."
They have had to defer to next year, "in the hope that we can get insurance, that our governing body can get insurance, and we can hold events again. That would effect every club in Ireland, we would have six main road events, everything has been cancelled this year".
Up to 80 or 90 riders would normally be expected to travel to Faugheen in the run-up to the July event and to participate in qualifying and then numerous races, with over 5,000 fans lining the roads. Many would camp locally, others stay in hotels and B&Bs in nearby towns and villages, with a consequent boost in business for the area, and that is replicated in other regions where such events usually take place.
"On a personal level, I've been involved in motorbike racing for over 40 years and it is very hard to take," Mr Power said.
"It's very sad that it's come to this point, not to be able to go to these events, not to go and see motorbikes on the grids. It's been very hard for me just to get my own head around this.
"The other side is I'm looking at what it means to so many other people - the riders, the teams, their families, the local community, what it means to them. It's affected everyone in a terrible way."
The local pub in Faugheen is Keever's, which would normally be the centre of the social side of things during the motorcycle racing festival.
"It means an awful lot, it's nearly like a big family event more than a community event," Mandy Keever said, "because everybody gets involved".
"All of the locals get involved every year because of the life it brings to the village. As well as that, we're trying to promote the area because it's a beautiful part of the country and it brings so many people here."
So the cancellation of this year's version is "a massive loss" to them.
"The Faugheen 50 would be our main revenue boost and without it, it is really missed - not only us, but everybody, the local town, accommodation... Everybody [usually] benefits."
In a statement to RTÉ, the Department of Finance said it is "aware of the difficulties" being experienced by the motorcycle sector in insuring its events and "does not take lightly" such challenges.
Ministers have raised the issue with the insurance industry, according to the department, but it would not be "appropriate" to comment on any terms or conditions offered by insurance companies to the governing bodies.
Meanwhile, the practice of specialist UK-based insurers being involved here has ended since the UK left the EU, the department said. While the Government has "prioritised" insurance reform, with a focus on public liability, it faces "constraints" in trying to address the issues of availability or pricing.
